County athletes punch tickets to state

By Andy Krutsinger, Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County athletes will flood the state track and field meet in Des Moines next weekend.

The county saw plenty of athletes punch their ticket to Des Moines after a huge day at the Class 3A state qualifier in Mt. Pleasant and Class 1A state qualifier in Wayland.

Although a full qualifying list is not yet out, each top-two finisher from Thursday advanced to state. More qualifications are expected to be announced later today (Friday).

The Panthers had a huge day in their home qualifier. Mt. Pleasant won the boys? portion of the meet with 195.50 points and the girls placed second with 129 points.

The Mt. Pleasant boys finished one-two in the 800-meter run, the 1600-meter run and the 3200-meter run.

In the 800-meter run, Adam Bodenham finished first in 2:06.92 and Brody Bender was second in 2:08.83.

Logan Murray won the 1600 in 4:32.05. Cody Mertens was second in 4:36.43. The script was flipped earlier in the day for the 3200 when Mertens took first in 10:22.60 and Murray was second in 10:22.66.

The Panther boys also finished first and second in the 110-meter high hurdles. Jake Lowe was first in 15.29 seconds and Cole Burns was second in 15.37 seconds. Lowe also won the 400-meter hurdles in 56.85 seconds.

Mt. Pleasant also won three relay events. The 4X800 team of Jacob Stukerjurgen, Jonathan Ita, Kyle Vanderham and Murray won in 8:16.77.

The boys? shuttle hurdle team of Zach Beason, Chase Lamm, Burns and Keegan Rich won in 59.02 seconds, and the sprint-medley team of Burns, Brady Sartorius, Tate Shull and Rylan Seberg took first in 1:38.21.

The Panther girls had three first-place finishers. Allison Buckert took the 100-meter hurdles in 15.97 seconds. The shuttle hurdle team of Maddie Williamson, Serenity Keomanivong, Kalynn Batey and Buckert won in 1:08.04 and Bailey Johnson took the discus throw with a hurl of 109-09.50.

Mt. Pleasant also had a handful of second-place finishers, all of which have qualified automatically for state.

On the boys? side, Rich took second in the long jump with a leap of 21-011, the 4X400 team of Ryan Hutchinson, Nolan Quade, Tate Shull and Seberg placed second in 3:33.32 and the distance medley team of Beason, Pat Canby, Seberg and Jacob Stukerjurgen took silver in 3:43.64.

On the girls? side, the 4X800 team of Maggie Cristoforo, Maggie Jennings, Abby Ryon and Taylor Murray advanced with a second-place time of 10:01.77. Grace Bittle took second in the shot put with a throw of 37-02.

WACO and New London were able to grab some automatic qualifications at the Class 1A meet at WACO and all three small-schools (WACO, New London and Winfield-Mt. Union) have more potential qualifiers when at-large bids are announced.

Taking first in Wayland was the WACO boys? shuttle hurdle team (1:00.70) and New London?s girls? 4X400 team (4:17.12). Lexi Brown took first individually for the Tigers in the 3000-meter run.

Many athletes, like Drake Relays qualifiers Carson McSorley (New London) and Cornell Hulme (WACO) picked up second-place finishes that should get them into the state field. The full list of area qualifiers known later in the day.

All area qualifiers will be in action at the co-ed state track meet at Drake University in Des Moines. The meet will take place from Thursday, May 18 to Saturday, May 20.